


The Ant and the Grasshopper

by monohighbrid, TenseKittenBrawler



Category: Supernatural, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: All Out War Arc (Walking Dead), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, Attempt at Humor, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Gen, Human Benny Lafitte, Human Castiel (Supernatural), Military, No Smut, SPN in the TWD world, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2020-06-24 21:21:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19732006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monohighbrid/pseuds/monohighbrid, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenseKittenBrawler/pseuds/TenseKittenBrawler
Summary: At the end of the world, it isn't the dead that is the biggest threat, it's the people.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt of a crossover, my first story posted at AO3. 
> 
> Thanks to monohighbrid for lending me her OC Emma Montgomery from "Saved by the bat", a story worth checking out. Also, thank you for helping me with the TWD part. 
> 
> I am not a native speaker, if you find major mistakes please don't hesitate to tell me. 
> 
> Fair warning: I am ahead chapter wise, but I have two little kids and am a working mom, so I will update rather irregularly.

All things considered, that _was_ one of the ways Dean always imagined he would go out, but he had always hoped he would be able to at least go out with a hell of a fight. The boot on his neck pressed him even harder into the ground when he tried to skirmish to get up. There was commotion outside of his view, sounds of a struggle and then the sickening thud of a rifle butt hitting a temple and Lisa’s panicked scream. This was his fault, and his alone. He had the worry about Sammy get the better of him, he had let his guard down and here they were. It’s the people, he heard Rick’s words in his head. The dead don’t want anything besides clawing your flesh from your bones. But people measure you up for the things they can take from you and then they do just that. They should never have left Alexandria, but it seemed the wiser decision at this point. The place had been as broken as his inhabitants, and frankly, Rick Grimes, their so-called leader may had the one or other point, but the guy was crazy. And dangerous. But still, they shouldn’t have left. Dean was suddenly pulled up on his knees next to Sam and Victor. The men lined up orderly, for an execution, no doubt about that. Sam was slumped, barely able to hold himself upright. That goddamn fever. Disease and sickness the only enemy they truly couldn’t fight. Sam would die anyway. The thought made the inevitable not any more attractive. The man in front of him was ugly, a badly healed wound left a padded scar across his face, dissecting the lip and the ragged beard. Normally Dean have said something snarky, give him some choice words with a smug smile, but not today. Not when three sure-aimed bullets or well-placed slices with sharp knives would leave Lisa, Ben, and Alex in the hands of these vultures.

“Kill the men. And make that bitch shut up,” he barked. Lisa’s cries stopped after a muffled scream and Dean once more tried to escape the zip-ties around his hands and feet. No such luck. He looked over to Sam who didn’t register anything around him anymore.

“I’m sorry Sammy,” Dean mumbled. He hoped that at some level Sam knew, hell they all knew, that he had tried. He really tried, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. Silenced gunshots and then, to Dean’s surprise, no pain, or darkness. He lifted his gaze to Ugly in front of him looking down in stunned shock onto the remnants of his left knee. He didn’t even make a sound, just dropped down on the other, then the screams started, more like pained roars until a woman acquainted his head with the non-business end of her rifle and he dropped down in blissful unconsciousness. Strange how thoughts went in extreme situations, but for some blank seconds, Dean only thought that her yellow shorts were extremely flamboyant. She had a smiley on her ass, the wink on her left back pocket mocking Dean for no apparent reason. He snapped out of it when two men came into view. They moved smoothly, the muzzles of their rifles pointed to the ground, with military precision. They set a perimeter.

“Clear,” one of them said and four others followed suit. Dean looked around. Their assailants were either dead or unconscious, taken out by at least seven of the others. The others, in this world more likely fiend or foe. They probably jumped from the frying pan into the fire. It was just one of those days. Lisa was down on the ground, not moving, and a redhead with an honest to good old-timey doctor’s bag was running over to her. Ben, bless the idiot, tried to step in her way but an old black guy with a sawed-off just grabbed him and dragged him back where Alex sat in silent horror by the situation.

“The woman?” Smiley-pants asked. Her eyes never left Dean, even tied up he was in their current state the biggest threat to whatever they were planning on doing with them. With Sam in fever delirium, Victor nearly knocked out and with a badly bleeding head wound, Lisa unconscious, Alex paralyzed by fear and Ben being eleven.

“Unconscious. Pupils dilate just fine, just knocked out as far as I can tell,”

“Him next,” she nodded to Victor. Then she stepped forward, lifting her rifle just the slightest bit.

“He bit?” she meant Sam who was now lying face first in the dirt, not moving, maybe not even breathing anymore. It took Dean a moment to remember words.

“No,” he shook his head. “Cut himself three days back. It’s infected,” for a second it looked like she was entertaining the idea that he might be lying. She nodded to a burly guy with a beard who just handed her his rifle and suddenly had a knife in his hand. Dean panicked. He was sure that the guy would put the knife in Sam’s skull just for precaution, but he wasn’t bit, he just had a fever.

“Na ah ah,” Smiley-pants said and now he had the muzzle of the rifle in his face. Beardy hesitated for a second, but then he crouched over Sam and cut the zip-ties on his hand and feet. He looked over to Dean and shot him a barely-there smile.

“All good, chief. Just wanna see for ourselves, alright?” he said in a Southern accent Dean never heard before, but he never went further than Missouri before the shit hit the fan. He turned Sam on his back, who was pale and sweaty and moaning, a sound Dean never felt more relieved to hear. Beardy cut open the ooze stained jeans on Sam’s right calf and removed the ripe bandages with a disgusted face. It smelled like blood and pus. The view wasn’t pretty, either

“Well shit,” the woman now said, and yeah, no shit. Dean’s throat went dry. Maybe they had jumped the gun with the baddies, but Sam was in bad condition, really bad condition. “Charlie,” she said and red-head jumped up from where she had bandaged Victor's head. Dean had been so caught up by Sam that he hadn’t even registered that at this point he was the only one still tied up. Victor looked around irritated.

“What happened?” he asked and Dean was pretty sure it was a concussion talking. Red-head, Charlie, hissed when she saw the wound.

“Hold him down,” she ordered Beardy and he obeyed. Whatever it was she poured over the wound it foamed and Sam stirred up with a yell. Dean’s protector instinct kicked in and he would have probably cut off his hands with the zip-ties if a hand on his shoulder hadn’t stopped him. Smiley-pants squeezed, fucking hard, to get his attention, and was right in his face.

“You listen up now. Let her do her job, so we can see what can be done, okay?” Dean stared at her, half desperate half angry by his helplessness. “Okay?” she repeated a bit more sternly. She had a tone that meant business, a tone that meant she was used to giving orders, used to orders getting obeyed. He nodded, tightly. Charlie was now pressing around in Sam’s stomach for some reason and pulled out a blood-pressure gauge. She shook her head in defeat.

“He’s septic, BP is 58 to 103 and he’s tachycardic. There’s definitely necrotic tissue. He needs a surgeon, an assload of antibiotics and even more luck.”

“Is there a chance he will make it?” Charlie shrugged.

“He’s a big guy. We’ve seen people come back from worse,” Dean looked frantically between Smiley-pants and his brother when she frowned in consideration of the words. Dean lived long enough in this new world order that he knew what she was thinking. She was thinking if it was even worth it. She looked down on Ugly who was slowly bleeding out by now and hadn’t moved since the whole thing started. She made a decision. Some invisible signals made Beardy hand her a walkie.

“Alpha leader alpha leader to Papa Bear, do you copy?” she asked.

“Is this really gonna stick?” the raspy repeat came, a little distorted by interferences. She smiled.

“You bet it is, suck it up Papa Bear. We took out Eric and his group, all good. We have guests. Six people. Three injured, one badly. Send the Prophet ahead. The doc needs to prep the infirmary. We are three klicks east of your whiskey. We need a welcome party.”

“Copy that,” the man on the other end said and obviously that was all information that needed to be exchanged since she threw the walkie back at Beardy.

“Alright. Patch him up as good as you can. We take our chances, start with the Ampicillin. Rufus? You take the woman. Charlie, I want you to escort the children. Ash when we move I want you to cover our back, Jo takes the front. Cas, you’ll help him,” she nodded down to Victor. “Keep your guard up. We move in ten,” the guy she had addressed to as Cas saluted her with a grin and said “Yes Ma’am,” which made Beardy chuckle and her rolling her eyes. Otherwise, everyone seemed to agree with what she just said. Well, almost everyone. The black guy stepped forward and gave Dean a long hard look.

“You sure about that?” was all he asked and she sighed.

“What _can_ they do, huh, even if they try?” Rufus lifted his ballcap and run his hand through his very short hair. He spat on the ground in the general direction of Ugly.

“Alright, just wanted to make my point,” he lifted his hands in a surrendering gesture. She turned to Dean, who still knelt on the floor tied up, and crouched down.

“When I untie you will I regret it?” she asked softly weighing a knife in her hand. Dean shook his head. “Okay, who is he to you?” she nodded to Sam.

“He’s my brother. Name’s Sam. I’m Dean. This is Victor, Lisa, the boy’s name is Ben and hers is Alex,” she hummed in acknowledgment.

“Alright Dean, my name is Emma, this gentlemen is Benny and take a good hard look on Castiel over there. Despite being all nice, cute and, in Benny’s case, cuddly we won’t hesitate, neither of us, to take down every last one of you if you try something remotely fishy. And make no mistake. We _can_ take you out no problem,” at this point, Dean would agree to everything just to get out of here and get everyone into safety, but that didn’t change the fact that he believed every word she was saying. He nodded. “Good,” she said cheerfully and cut the zip-ties. He massaged feeling back into his hands when he knee-walked over to Sam. Charlie had put on a new bandage and looked up to Dean.

“That’s all I can do for him now. He’s dehydrated, but now I can’t start an I.V. He’s your brother?” Dean nodded. “Look, there’s a good chance he won’t make it, I’m being completely honest here, okay? But we will try. Help me with that,” she made Dean hold up Sam’s head when she forced two pills down his throat with the help of some water. Sam dissolved into a coughing fit, but he swallowed the pills nonetheless. Dean looked down on him with a tight expression. Suddenly he remembered that it was not just Sam. Shit, he was a bad leader sometimes. He got up fast enough that two rifles were pointed at him, but the muzzles went down immediately when it was clear that he just wanted to walk over to the kids and Lisa. He was followed, though, nonchalantly, but Cas and his Mk 18. Ben had cradled Lisa’s head in his lap. She was still out as a light. Despite the common belief propagated by movies and television, you would not simply bounce back when knocked out for good. She was very likely heavily concussed and it might take a while until she would wake up.

“You guys are okay?” he asked Ben and Alex. Both had cried, but both nodded.

“She won’t wake up,” Ben said with a whine in his voice.

“She will, kid,” Dean said.

“But what if not?” he could hear the question between the lines. What if she died? What would happen to them? What would happen to her?

“She will, okay? She will be fine.”

“But,” Dean interrupted him with a harsh look.

“No but, she will. Now stop it and get yourselves together, okay?” both kids nodded.

“Who are these people?” Alex asked softly. She eyed Castiel and the black guy, Rufus, with a wary expression.

“Military I guess, at least some of them.”

“Can we trust them?” Dean sighed. The answer was no, of course not. But they were Sam’s only chance to survive. Dean had to take that leap if it brought everyone into danger or not. Hell, ten minutes ago they were about to die anyway.

“We need to take the chance,” Ben’s gaze dropped to his mother’s face while Alex nodded tightly. They had to take that chance. A rustling from some bushes caught everyone’s attention and one of them stumbled into the clearing that was a sad excuse for a camp not one hour ago. His father had called them Munchers, the group in Kansas City had called them Geeks, Rick had called them Walkers, but they were fucking Zombies, plain and simple. Dean’s hand automatically moved to where normally his knife was, but of course, it was gone, taken away by Ugly.

“We got a dead one,” Ash said. Benny immediately took his knife and was about to brain the thing when Emma hold him back.

“Let Charlie do it, it’s just the one,” the girl paled but got up. The monster meanwhile tried to lash out at Ash who stepped away easily. The heat made them slow, maybe because the process of rotting away was accelerated or something, but they seem to like cold weather and rain better. That’s why Dean and his group had come further south in the first place. Charlie was hesitant and clearly scared, features you are not allowed to have anymore. Dean was well aware of what Emma was doing. Charlie was probably one of the lucky ones hidden away for most of the time after the Zombie apocalypse went down. Although lucky one was not the right term, not anymore, more like fucked up weak ones, like Alex over there. Holed up somewhere, in Alex case, a remote farm in Northern Kansas, shielded away from the new type of atrocities, unprepared for what was now the new way of life. They could learn to survive, just like all the others, but it was more like a hands-on, all-out-war, sink or swim crash course in killing things.

“Nice and easy, like we practiced. We got you,” Benny drawled aiming for the head of the thing with his rifle. The rest of the group stayed alert, Dean noticed. No one let his guard down. The people where pros. Charlie’s technique was good, although her moves were unpractised. She got the thing in the right temple and went down with it. It was dead but she panicked anyway and tried to scramble away right into Benny’s shins who pulled her up easily.

“You are okay, all good,” he mumbled and squeezed her shoulder. She got herself together quickly and allowed herself a little smile after an approving nod from Emma.

“We better move,” she said and looked down on Ugly who still hadn’t moved. She sighed and put a quick bullet in his head. She probably had hoped that he would wake up on more time, maybe for a quick interrogation, maybe for a villainous monologue, but then she shouldn’t have bashed in his skull with her rifle. Emma threw one of the backpacks at Dean with a look that said remember what I told you, one wrong move and you are dead. Benny shouldered his weapon and made a head jerk towards Sam still lying on the ground.

“Come on, chief, let’s get him up,” between the two of them they lifted Sam onto unsteady feet. His head fell onto his chest and he groaned.

“Make sure he doesn’t put too much weight on his leg,” Charlie said. She ran over to Ben and Alex and ushered them to get up. Rufus put Lisa’s still boneless body over his shoulder with a grunt, but with all the weight she lost, they all lost, in the couple last weeks it probably was just for show. At last Castiel helped Victor up. The man was noticeably calm but seemed fully alert again. Nonetheless, he swayed slightly on his feet which led Castiel to put one of his arms over his shoulder, for support.

“Okay, let’s roll,” Emma said. She obviously was covering their flanks and kept an eye on Dean and Victor for the matter. Not that they could do much besides hobbling along. They moved fast, nearly too fast for Dean who stumbled a couple of times. They eventually slowed when he tripped the umpteenth time, this time he went down on one knee, nearly gotten Sam down with him who now dangled awkwardly on Benny’s side. Emma stepped in before the 6 feet 4 man crashed to the ground and looked at Dean, then Alex and Ben. She sighed. Maybe she hadn’t noticed before, but all of them looked worse to wear, lined by hunger and exposure. She shot Benny a look over Sam’s slumped shoulders and the man pulled out the walkie from one of his many pockets.

“Papa bear do you copy?”

“I’m here, son.”

“Where’s our welcome party?”

“About half a mile from your last position. What’s your twenty?” Benny looked at Emma who looked at Ash who in return shrugged, put his fingers in his mouth and let out a very loud whistle. There was an answering whistle not far east of them.

“Found’em. We go radio silence,” Benny said.

“Copy that, see you in twenty,” Benny and Emma let Sam slowly glide to the ground and propped him up on a tree. Then they did what they probably should have done right from the beginning. A couple of protein bars and canteens were produced and handed to Dean’s people. Dean had to remind Ben to eat slowly when he first poured some water into Lisa’s and later into Sam’s mouth. Sam coughed. His eyes fluttered open.

“Dean?” he asked weakly.

“I’m here, I’m here. Be quiet, okay?” Ash had just given away their position for everyone to hear and there were probably already coming for them. He sighed relieved when five people, three men, and two women stepped from somewhere behind some trees.

“You requested some muscle?” one woman asked, older, with short dark hair and a smirk. She gave the new arrivals a quick once over. “We cleared the way back, should be a milk run,” Emma pushed herself from the tree she was leaning on.

“Alright then. Are you guys good to go? We should hurry, we maybe have 30 minutes of daylight left and these woods aren’t exactly Undead free,” she wasn’t waiting for an answer.

“Okay, I need Benny’s and Cas’s hands free. Martin, Mike? You take the big guy, be careful with his leg, You think you two can handle Victor over there? He can walk, he’s just a little unsteady,” she asked the woman with the short hair and a young blond who clutched her gun nervously. The older woman nodded.

“Sure thing, boss,” she said.

“Good, you guys know the spiel. Ash and Benny cover the back, Jo and Cas you take the front. Tom and I covering the flanks. If something went South our people are the priority,” Dean gave her an odd look. “What, I don’t know you guys,” she pulled out a handgun from her holster and handed it Dean grip first. “Don’t shoot any of us,” Dean checked the mag and nodded.

“Go,” Emma just said. Albeit cleared they ran into maybe a dozen of Walkers. Dean was impressed by the well-honed way they worked together. One member of the two-man-groups stepped forward covered by the second and knifed the mofo smoothly just to get back in line. The kids, Lisa, Charlie, Sam and Dean himself were kept safe and sound in the middle of them all.

“Who are you guys,” he asked Emma.

“Later,” she said. They stepped out on a dirty road where two trucks were waiting for them.

“Come on, let’s roll. There’s a little horde coming maybe a mile away. Don’t wanna draw more attention. They’re heading west, so away from the compound. We can outrace them,” a bearded guy yelled. Ben and Alex climbed into one truck together with Lisa. Sam was too tall for the backseat. They put him in the bed of the second truck. Charlie and Dean climbed in after him. At last, the guy obviously responsible for Charlie’s personal detail, Tom, jumped onto the bed as well and took a position that would allow him to shoot easily on anyone and anything coming too close to the truck. The rest of the group split up between the cars. It was cramped, but it would work. Charlie immediately pulled up Sam’s sleeve and put an I.V. needle in one of his veins.

“Are you a doctor?” Dean asked her while she pulled the matching I.V. bag out of her doctor’s bag.

“Well, I was going to become a doctor, but then, well, you know what happened. But luckily,” she opened the clamp and the transparent liquid made its way down and into Sam’s bloodstream. “There is a surgeon and a general practitioner in the compound teaching me so, considering the circumstances I’m a doctor in training. Hold this up for me,” Dean held up the bag.

“What were you doing out there with the others,” Dean asked carefully. He maybe should ask Emma and not her, but well, he always had been a curious man. She looked to Tom who gave her a go-ahead gesture.

“These people who held you? They used to be part of our community. They,” she aimlessly rummaged around in her bag. “They were bad people who done bad things and Emma and the others, well, I know I don’t belong there, but I had to see for myself,” she mumbled. Dean could tell there was a story there, but he shut up about it. He stared at Tom, wondering if he would add some information. Instead, the man grinned a perfect pearly white smile.

“Lieutenant Commander Thomas Walker, US Navy, or what’s left of it,” he said and his voice gut-punched Dean. The same lazy drawl, the same rich voice his Dad had. Sure he looked nothing like John Winchester and he was probably 10 years or so younger, but still. Dean’s eyes fell down on Sam.

“Dean. Winchester,” he mumbled and Tom took the hint and focusses back on the road.

“You are a lucky man, Dean.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS in the end notes

Ten minutes later they pulled through a heavily guarded roll gate into some kind of yard that looked mostly abandoned. Dean looked up a tall clinker building.

“What’s this place?” he asked Tom who jumped light-footed from the truck.

“Research lab. Military adjacent. They got evacuated shortly before the whole infrastructure broke down. Lucky for us. Easy to defend, enough space to house our people, greenhouses, kitchen, living facilities, electricity,” he helped down Charlie. More people appeared. Charlie put a hand on Dean’s chest to make him step away when two women and a rather small dark-haired man with a greying beard hovered over Sam.

“Haven’t called a triage in a while, but I would say this is our red patient. Get him in. What’s his name?” Tom just shrugged.

“Sam,” Dean delivered. He eyed the man he assumed was either the surgeon or the GP.

“And who are you?”

“His brother.”

“Well, brother of Sam. You won’t come in with us. I tell you this one time, and one time only,” Dean’s brows knitted together.

“The hell I will,” he growled. This was his brother and he didn’t know these people. “We won’t split up,” the Doctor sighed.

“I wasn’t asking,” he just said and Sam got carted away on a gurney. Okay, maybe Dean caused a scene, albeit a small one. In his current condition, underfed, dehydrated, tired to the bone and don’t forget beaten up by Ugly and his friends, Tom didn’t even have to try hard to hold him back from running behind his brother. He forced him to sit down and stay down to calm the fuck down for some much needed minutes until Emma appeared in his view. She held a Gatorade in his face for several seconds until he snatched it away with a growl. He hated that shit, would never have drunk it before the dead rose, but now it was like mana from the sky.

“You don’t trust us, I get it. To be fair I don’t trust you either, but we have you outgunned and unnumbered which makes me feel so much more relaxed about it,” she had the nerve to carry a smile. Behind her, Alex and Ben shuffled around awkwardly. She looked at him hard, like she tried to read him. He did realize that on one side he was flanked by Tom and on the other by Castiel, both still carrying their rifles. 

“Figured these are yours?” she said. She held a knuckle knife and a Colt in each hand. They were his. He wondered how she had known. Was this some sort of test? He reluctantly grabbed the knife and put it in the empty sheath on his belt. No one jumped him or hit him over the head with his rifle. He took the colt next. He weighed it in his hands and finally checked the mag. It was fully loaded. It hadn’t been fully loaded before.

“Now we are even,” he gave her a look. He might be weakened, but patronizing was still a no go. She chuckled. “Give our docs some space. They know what they are doing. I am willing to say they are the best in the state. Come on. I’ll give you the light version of the tour,” she turned her back to him and walked away slowly. Dean reluctantly got up ignoring the helpful hand of Castiel and followed her. He kept Ben and Alex close. From time to time he looked at Cas who strolled casually behind him his rifle loosely in his hand. They walked around the building to the main entrance, a big glass door leading into a rather practical looking foyer.

“Welcome to the Rappahannock Institute for Virology, funded by the CDC and the US government. In case of pandemic equipped to mass-produce and distribute vaccine for the whole Eastern part of the US of A. But since no one ever came up with a vaccine or an idea what the hell made the dead rise in the first place I might add, this place was evacuated way back to centralize resources. Most personnel were relocated to D.C. which in hindsight had been a stupid move. Come one,” she made an inviting gesture and walked along a long corridor. Dean could hear the murmur of people getting louder. They passed doors with various handmade signs saying things like pantry one, clothes storage, exam room 2. It didn’t seem particularly organized, but Dean assumed that they used the rooms as say came.

“Labs are in the east wing, so are the production line. We repurposed the labs, but we have no idea what to make with all the bioengineering stuff, any thoughts?” Dean and the kids looked at her blankly and she smiled.

“Well, thought so. Your brother, Victor and your Mom?” she raised an eyebrow to Ben and Alex. Ben nodded. “Are in the east wing. There’s our, well hospital is a bit of a strong word. Let’s get some food into you and clean you up and then we check on them, alright?” They walked past a former conference room that was now a daycare center. All three stopped for a second and gaped into the room filled with a dozen laughing and playing toddlers. No one of them had seen a lot of kids lately. The scene looked carefree, the scene looked normal. For the first time since they met Emma and her group Dean’s DEFCON dropped from blue to green. A bunch of kids didn’t automatically mean these were good people, but if they were able to set up something like this they were strong, by numbers, by resources. And strength meant safety. Dean was proven right when they entered the cafeteria. He couldn’t help that his jaw dropped. The room could probably accommodate 300 people, but this wasn’t what made Dean’s eyes go wide. It was the fact that it was two thirds filled. 200 hundred people, laughing, eating. He couldn’t see many guns, but everyone was carrying at least knives. 200 fucking people. This was the biggest community he had seen so far. This was a fucking army. And this probably wasn’t all of them. Ben and Alex automatically pressed closer to him and he put a soothing arm around Alex. People clearly checked them out, but the interest was only mild. They were used to see new faces. These people were taking people in.

“We are just in time for dinner,” she led them to a table that was a bit away from the rest and sat down. Dean and the kids followed suit. He jumped a little when Benny just was there balancing a tablet in one hand with three bowls and spoons on it, and two water bottles in the other. A third was tucked und his arms and he tried to put everything down without making a mess. He wasn’t subtle about it. Cas took pity after one bowl nearly dropped. Dean stopped Ben from immediately ducking in. He glared at Emma who just raised an eyebrow. Benny let himself fall down on a chair that made a little creaking sound on the weight of the man.

“For Christ Sake,” he murmured, rolled his eyes, took a spoonful of the content of the bowls, some sort of vegetable stew and put it in his mouth. “It ain’t poisoned,” he stated at held to spoon in Dean’s face. Dean took it with a scowl and cleaned it on his shirt. When he looked up again he was greeted by two amused faces.

“That really did the trick there, chief,” Benny said and Dean blushed. Yeah, he looked like an idiot, cleaning the spoon with a shirt covered in all kinds of yikes. He nodded to Ben and Alex who started eating and took a bite himself. After six weeks of living off the land in a rather unsuccessful way, this was the best dish he ever had. He had a thousand questions and he worried sick about his brother, but his body wanted food bad enough he would’ve licked the bowl clean wasn’t it for Emma and Benny eyeing him patiently. He cleared his throat.

“So you are in charge of this place?” he asked addressing Emma who leaned back. Now in the light of the cafeteria, the hideous shorts weren’t fooling him anymore and he could see that she was older than he previously thought, maybe in her late thirties. He could be wrong, the zombie apocalypse made them all age before their time. The only one treated good by it had been Sam, who maybe would have died in the woods of a fever, but with fabulous hair and his six-pack intact.

“Yeah, kind of. I mean I don’t decide everything, and hell am I not interested in things like pantry inventory, but when push comes to shove I call the shots. I was military, U.S. Army, Sergeant First Class. Cas was my Staff Sergeant. Benny was a Navy Captain,” she said Navy Captain a little ironically and Benny gave her a good-natured buff with his elbows. “We were in Norfolk. Big refugee camp there, on the Army Base. It was pretty safe for a while, then things did what they always do these days. They went south. We didn’t know at the time that everyone would turn. Fucking surprise. Some flu decimated our people, we put in quarantine, thought everything was under control, and then bam, we got overrun from within. Everything got a bit crazy and suddenly one of the vessels in the harbor started firing on the fleeing civilians, which led another vessel to fire on the vessel and we had an all-out war on our hands. Our CO and XO got caught in the crossfire, many of our guys just ran or got killed. Can’t blame them, most of them were just kids. Cas, I and a handful of others gathered what we could, technically we were stealing it and disserted, but that is just semantics. We took as many civilians as we could gather in the trucks and ran the hell out of dodge, inland. Some of the folks remembered the place, used to work here, and we came here on a hunch, really. We got lucky. Some weeks later a group of us was scavenging when we ran into another group of soldiers, sporting navy blue,” she made a head jerk towards Benny. “The same fuckers firing on us, or so we thought. Could have turn out pretty bad, but we had something Benny wanted and we started talking instead of shooting and hey, they weren’t the assholes trying to kill us with birds, they were the ones stopping the others. Long story short, we took ‘em in, secured the place even more over time. Took more people in. We have food, medicine, are well stocked on weapons and ammo. This place was kept secret and is pretty remote, you know in case of a terrorist attack or something, so no one is coming looking. This place ain’t on the maps,” she stopped and looked at him. Dean tilted his head.

“How are you so sure that he didn’t fire on you?” he asked carefully, and Emma laughed.

“Well, the thing I mentioned I had that Benny wanted? I was pretty convinced he would fire on his wife and kids he knew were in the camp at the time, so,” Dean had to admit it made sense. “We obviously hadn’t two four-year-olds with us, but Andrea jumped between us screaming obscenities at each other just in time.”

“Isn’t he like, higher ranking?” Alex asked with a small voice. She was afraid of him, Dean could tell. It was because he was a soldier, Navy in particular, and well, it had been Navy soldiers who had done nasty things to her. Benny shrugged and gave her a warm smile. He had seen it, too.

“It’s her base, her gig. She knows shit about boats, I know shit about ground war. Well, that ain’t true, but you get my drift. Besides, it’s common courtesy. _If_ the world would still be intact even a General wouldn’t take the command from a Ship Captain and the other way around just because he’s higher ranking.”

“And I wouldn’t let him,” Emma deadpanned. Benny nodded solemnly.

“Yeah, and that, too,” Emma leaned forward.

“I’m dying to hear your story, but I can see you guys are tired as hell and you probably want to check on your people. Listen, we ain’t keeping you here, okay? You are not our prisoners. The other will get their guns back but don’t feel offended that I will have someone watching you for a bit. We aren’t stupid, we are careful. When you are ready you can leave, but at the moment your brother isn’t going anywhere anyway, so you might as well give us a chance here. You survived out there, so you are strong and capable and we always need people like that,” Dean wasn’t answering, but he shared a look with Alex and Ben. Then he made a half shrug and half nod gesture that made her chuckle.

“Good enough,” she got up. “Benny now will introduce you to his lovely wife and you guys will clean up. That’s not negotiable I’m afraid, Crowley is mighty particular about hygiene in his infirmary. He won’t let you in stinking and looking like something that died in the sewer. He’s probably bitching about that his patients look like that already. I make sure you guys stick somewhere together near our sickbay. I assume you want to stay with your brother?”

“Yeah, but I don’t wanna leave them alone,” Dean said. She nodded.

“I don’t think that’s a big problem. We’ll see how Sam looks. Anyway, Victor wasn’t that badly hurt, he won’t need to be under IC. We’ll figure something out. I’ll leave you to it,” she said and strolled away leaving Dean and the kids with Benny and the ever-present Cas.

“Let’s go, guys,” Benny said. He led them down the same hall they had come earlier and down some stairs. A sign said gym. Dean turned to Castiel who silently walked next to him. Seriously, this guy made no sound.

“You aren’t much of talker, aren’t you,” Dean more stated than asked. Cas just smiled a wide smile that showed of a white row of teeth.

“Don’t give him something to drink, though. He won’t shut up about he and Gabriel this, he and Gabriel that,” Benny said into the air. Cas scoffed but grinned even wider.

“And Gabriel is your?”

“Brother. He’s my brother.”

“Is he here, too?”

“Unfortunately,” Benny said with a playful smirk over his shoulder.

“Keep walking, Lafitte,” Cas said in a mock-serious voice. Alex smiled up to him shyly and he gave her a wink. Dean wasn’t quite sure what to make out of the banter. These people were nice, helpful, _happy_. What the actual hell? A woman was waiting for them, beautiful, olive dark skin, a thick black ponytail, sporting a smile. That Benny was a lucky guy.

“Andrea, this is Dean, Ben, and Alex. They need clothes and a shower,” he leaned into her and whispered something into her ear. She said okay and smiled at him. He gave her a quick peck. “That’s my wife, so no flirting, you two,” he said to Ben who just kind of blushed. “I’ll see you guys later,” with that he slapped Cas on the shoulder and walked away.

“So,” Andrea said. “Come with me,” she led them into a storage room that was filled to the brim with clothes. An elderly woman rummaged around in some shirts. She had her back the incoming group.

“Andy, do you know where the large shirts are? The guy’s fucking huge,” she turned around and an embarrassed smile appeared on her face. “Oh hey there. I was just looking for something to dress for your friends. I’m Ellen. I guess you met my daughter, Jo, earlier,” she said. Dean honestly had no idea. The only names he remembered were Benny’s, Cas’ and Emma’s. He was too tired to recall the others, so he just made a hard to read shrug.

“You’ve seen the others? Are they alright?” he asked eagerly. Ellen took a breath.

“Well, the woman is awake, but pretty out of it. The guy, Victor made a bit of a scene because you weren’t there, but when I left Emma had calmed him down and both doctors were with Sam. Sorry I don’t know how he is,” she said and Dean nodded tightly. “But he was alive,” Ellen added. Andrea handed her two black shirts and Ellen thanked her and left quickly. Ten minutes later all three were provided with a whole new wardrobe and stared at the showers. Real showers.

“Hot showers, too,” Cas said into the silence like he had read Dean’s mind. “We usually encourage people to keep it short, but in your case, by all means, take your time, you will need it. I’m right outside,” he said and wandered off. When the hot water hit his body a groan escaped Dean’s mouth which made Alex three stalls down chuckle. He looked down on himself and watched for a while how black-reddish water ran down the drain. He looked skinny, he could see his rips, even the little bit of pudge he was never able to get rid of no matter how hard he trained was gone. And he was bruised. Maybe he should ask the doctor to check him out, too. After he checked out the kids at least. He had a nasty sting in his left rips and his ankle looked swollen. When he thought he was soaked enough he washed his hair and his body until the water running down on him was clean and clear like a spring. He sighed and turned off the shower. He awkwardly dried himself off in the small stall and put on the new pair of boxers and the jeans that were a bit lose on his hips. After weeks of wearing nearly constantly the same dirty, damp clothes it felt like heaven. He stepped to a sink and looked at himself in the mirror. He had tried to keep the beard short, but there was only so much you could do with a jackknife and without mirror.

“Hey, do you have any shaving stuff?” he yelled in the general direction of the door and Cas carefully peeked in.

“Sure,” he said and a minute later a pair of scissors, a razor and shaving cream was put in his hand by Cas who looked him up and down with a frown.

“You guys been out there a long time, aren’t you?” he asked and Dean shrugged.

“There are not many places left to go,” he just said and Cas nodded solemnly just to wander off again before he would accidentally embarrass Alex by standing around when she came out of the shower in a towel. 15 minutes later three freshly dressed, freshly brushed and in Dean’s case freshly shaved people entered the infirmary. The same man who had told Dean he wouldn’t come with him into the infirmary earlier was currently playing around on an I.V. drip. He looked up.

“Look at you, like a new penny,” he said. He had a gruff British accent. His gaze landed on Ben. He made a gesture to a door.

“Go ahead, son. Your Mom is awake and wants to see you. You, too, girl. I need to talk grown-up stuff with the man,” both kids hurried into the room. They ran into Emma, literally, who came out of the room at the same time. She just laughed when both kids apologized with scared faces and then joined Dean and the doctor on Sam’s bed. Sam was unconscious or sleeping. He was very pale, but he wasn’t sweating anymore, which Dean took as a good sign.

“Name’s Crowley, my colleague,” he pointed his thumb to the door Emma had just come out of indicating that the other doctor was inside. “Removed a lot of necrotic tissue from the wound,” he pulled a white cloth away from Sam’s leg. The wound was a gaping cut in his leg. Dean looked confused.

“Why haven’t you stitched it up?”

“Here’s the catch. The wound’s still infected. Stitching it up would mean a nice, cozy environment for all the nasty buggers to be fruitful and multiply. We need it open, so all the pus and lymph can drain properly. All we can do now is keep it clean, keep him on antibiotics and wait till it’s healed up by itself, which means no moving, and I won’t lie, it’ll hurt quite a bit. We don’t have much morphine to give away, but we have aspirin and ibuprofen, that will help at least a bit. Your brothers lucky, albeit Charlie’s diagnose he isn’t septic. We got the fever down fast after he removed all the pus and the necrotic tissue. His heartrate’s down, his BP is up. But he’s not over the hill yet. There’s a chance the fever spikes again, there’s a chance the infection gets bad again despite the meds. The next couple of days will show how the wound heals up. But he’s on a good way. Our fearless leader over there made the right call bringing him in. He’s in a good shape, considering Victor told me that goes on for some days now, so I’m carefully optimistic. To the others. The woman has a hell of a concussion and shows very early signs of scurvy. Something tells me you dined on animals only the last couple of weeks,” Dean nodded. “Don’t worry. That’s nothing that bed rest and some salads won’t cure. She’ll be fine in a week or two. Concussionwise Victor’s a bit better off. He will need bed rest for some days anyways, so no climbing over the fences or snooping up the place for him. The wound barely needed stitches. Malnourished, like I assume you all are, but as I said, some hearty meals provided by our industrial-sized kitchen will do the trick. As we speak Cain, that’s the other doctor, checks out your kids. Emma told me you look like shit, but you seem fine, but I will check you out, too. So off with the shirt, will you,” Dean was seated on the bed next to Sam and was poked and prodded by the doctor for some time. The verdict was a bruised rib, a sprained ankle for which he got a support bandage and an ear infection. Crowley let drop five big red pills in his hand.

“Vitamins, once a day for the next 5 days. Just for boosting your immune system a bit. And don’t shy away from some apples or tomatoes the next couple of weeks,” the other doctor came in. He was taller and he looked like a pirate with the long hair and the goatee. He looked worried which ultimately alarmed Dean. He whispered something into Emma’s ear. A deep sad frown appeared on her face and she looked over to Dean who knew, just knew, what the doctor had just told her. She nodded and pushed herself away from the wall she was leaning on.

“So, how close are you and Alex?” she asked softly and Dean sighed. “I’m just asking because she maybe needs someone she knows and trusts with her when Cain gives her a pelvic examination and Lisa is in no condition to do so,” Crowley lifted an eyebrow.

“Aw bloody hell,” he cursed and somehow glared at Dean for a second. Emma shot him a look that calmed him down.

“It wasn’t them. She said some men held her and raped her?” Dean let his hands run threw his hair. It was way too long, he needed a haircut.

“Yeah, we. We had made camp on a road, lit a fire. They passed us. Group of four men. We hid, but they stopped anyway. The fire. So we watched them, we are pretty good at hiding at this point, and we saw that they had a girl tied up in the bed of their truck, beaten up, scared, crying. So Sam, Victor and I followed them, snuck into their camp and slit their throats in their sleep,” he said without breaking eye contact. She raised her eyebrow ever so slightly.

“Well, that ain’t a story I would tell Benny’s kids at night, but thanks for being honest with me. I think you made the right call there, just so you know.”

It was kind of odd sitting next to Alex, back to the doctor between her legs, and holding her hand why she was silently crying. The doctor, Cain, was explaining very calm and very soothing what he was doing. Charlie was there, too, but she looked distracted and irritated to the point that Cain simply sent her away. Dean now had a very clear idea what her story was. Cain decided to give Alex a mild sedative after he was done and Dean helped her to the room Emma had provided for them. True to her word it was big enough for all of them, although two of the beds were clearly hastily added, they barely fit in. Lisa was sleeping in one of the bed with Ben in her arms. The boy was awake but content with cuddling with his Mom. Dean helped Alex to lie down and sat next to her until her breath evened out. He knew Crowley had said bed rest, but he motioned Victor to follow him outside.

“So what do you think?”

“I think you look better with a bit of stubble, but that’s not what you meant, right?” he rubbed his own beard. He obviously had showered, but not shaved yet. “The woman, Emma, seems reasonable and level headed. Good leader qualities, people seem to listen to her. When I was in the car with them they cracked some jokes, nothing crude, just friendly banter. They seem at ease with each other, no immediate red flags there. The doctors were super helpful. They had a guy watching, had a gun. But let’s face it, we would do that, too. She told me 234 people live here, that’s serious numbers. I haven’t seen much from this place. Hot Greek chick gave me fresh clothes, had a wedding ring, though,” Dean had to grin.

“Yeah, remember the big guy with the beard, Benny? That’s her husband. Don’t mess with him, he’s a Navy Captain,” he got serious. “But what you said, I saw that, too. Told me how they got here. Like I suspected some are military, she is. Gave me my gun back. I don’t know man. I have a good feeling and it scares the shit out of me. You should see how that doc treated Alex, man. These people are nice and kind. Where is the fucking catch?”

“They are nothing like the Alexandria guys. I mean they are obviously way more people, so they can afford to take some half-starved strangers in without that much of a risk, but they didn’t need to. They could have us just left there next to their dead ex-buddies. She told you the story?”

“Haven’t asked yet.”

“Seven people. Ran into them like five or six weeks ago. Weird dudes, heavily armed, but out of ammo. They said they ran into a big herd, but she didn’t quite believe ‘em. They were a bit eager to get here, too. She had them watched, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. She admitted some mistakes were made. The guys killed two of her men, stole a car and made a run for it. Before that, they had themselves a little party with three of the women here. That and her gut feeling that they wanted to report back to someone made her go after them. Lucky for us, but it makes me wonder,” Dean looked at him hard.

“That these guys belong to the same guys Rick wanted to ‘deal with’?”

“Yeah, maybe we should tell her that, about Alexandria, Hilltop, the Savior guys. I don’t know. In the end, we rat out two groups to a community that makes it’s living by robbing others blind. We don’t know these people,” Dean nodded. He looked over to a window with a little chair maybe 20 feet away from them. The guy who was with him in the car, Tom or something, sat there. So he was obviously their guard for the time being. He shot him another pearly white smile.

“We wait a couple of days, see how things turn out. Maybe talk to some people and get a feeling for this place. It’s hard to hide the real nasty stuff if there is nasty stuff. You guys and Sam can’t go anywhere anyway. You should rest. I’ll check on you guys, but I have to sit with Sam. I have to.”

“Sure man, hope he will get better soon,” Dean walked into the infirmary. Someone had put a comfortable looking armchair and a blanket next to Sam’s bed. He propped his feet on the bed and looked at his brother whose breath was even and regularly.

“Uh uh uh,” Crowley scolded without even looking up from his paperwork. He gave an office chair a slight kick and it rolled over until it bounced onto Dean’s knee. “You wanna put your feet up you use this. Get your dirty shoes off my nice clean sheets, Squirrel,” he gave him an amused look over his classes and focussed back on his clipboard.

“Squirrel?” Dean asked with a little righteous indignation in his voice.

“With your brother being as tall as a moose, yes, Squirrel,” Dean thought about it for a while.

“I don’t get it,” the doctor sighed dramatically and turned around.

“From the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show? Come on you are younger than me, but not that much younger.”

“How old do you think I am,” Dean asked with a grumpy face which made Crowley laugh.

“I don’t know. I would have to saw off a finger and count the annual rings.”

“I’m not an expert, but I don’t think that this is how it works,” Dean yawned.

“So you are the medical professional now? Try to get some sleep. Me personally I would prefer you would lie down, but this will do,” he focussed back of whatever he was doing. He was right, Dean should try to get some sleep. He vaguely wondered if he would even be able to do so when he already drifted off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rape


	3. Chapter 3

“Really Dean, I can walk,” Sam huffed and pushed his brother away a bit. Dean put on a pout. He looked at the stairs that would lead to one of the outlooks. Benny was on watch and he observed the scene 15 feet under him with mild interest. “Crowley says climbing stairs is PT.”

“Crowley also said no climbing over the fence.”

“That hardly qualifies,” Sam gripped the handrail and made his way up one step at a time. Cain had removed quite a bit of muscle. The leg looked marred and he had a bad limp, but both doctors assured Sam that he would be able to walk nearly normally again in time and with enough practise. Arriving at the top Benny opened a folding chair and padded the seat.

“Take a seat, Chief,” Benny drawled and Sam let himself fall in the chair. A chair that hadn’t been here this morning, as far as Dean recalled.

“You are in on this?” he demanded to know like Benny had betrayed him big time. Benny chuckled.

“Sure am. Nothing wrong with a little fresh air. Come one, brother, isn’t like I take him to my line dance class. Besides Sam here is bored out of his mind and keeping watch is him pulling his weight. Give him that,” Sam looked at Dean with a triumphant smile. Dean wasn’t done yet.

“Yeah? You can barely look over the wall now, how is that keeping watch?”

“I’m tall. I’ll manage,” he said with a smug smile. Benny handed him binoculars and a handgun. The subject was settled. Dean threw his arms in the air in defeat.

“Fine, but you better not bitch to me tonight how your leg hurts and you maybe overdone it,” he grumbled.

“Don’t you have a car to fix,” Sam said and looked through the binos. Dean was right, he barely could look over the wall, so actually he was a shitty lookout, but hell no he would admit that now. Dean glared at Sam.

“Yes, I have. And I go because I want to, not because you told me to.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Sam mumbled. Both Benny and he busted out laughing when Dean jumped down the last stair.

“I heard that,” Dean yelled, but with no heat in his voice. Things were good lately. Dean had spent the first two weeks snooping the place out thoroughly and hadn’t found anything that set off his alarms. No torture dungeons, no storerooms full with items obviously taken from people or a pit full of zombies for wacky experiments. They had a cell, but Emma had said the last time someone was inside said cell was a guy they ran into the woods butt naked and Ash had knocked him out more out of reflex than because he was a threat. Turned out the guy had been robbed and was a bit confused due to hypothermia. They had let him sleep it off in the cell. He now lived here, his name was Garth. Dean hadn’t met him yet, since he and a couple of others had been on a long, two months run. They were expected back in four days. Since they were stuck here Dean and later Victor had offered to work. At first, Emma put them on general things like watch duty, patrol, some heavy lifting to bring the harvest in. Always accompanied by someone else of course. Emma was smart, she wasn’t taking chances. But after Emma decided that they could be trusted, a bold move from her side, Dean thought, she showed him and Victor the garage. She was genuinely happy that they had two mechanics now. Fisher, the guy who took care of the cars was a ship mechanic and barely knew what he was doing. The young guy was eager to learn. It nearly was like the old times in Lawrence, he and Victor working cars and teaching the youth. Lisa worked in the kitchen and with the children. Ben wasn’t working at all, he was allowed to be a kid, he had to go to school, maybe some helping in the garden and greenhouses here and there. It was nearly normal, weren’t it for the machete and weapons training. Dean liked that. Most of the people who lived here had spent time outside, they knew how to survive, but most of them weren’t going out anymore. Didn’t change the fact that Emma wanted them sharp. She went easy on Alex, though. The girl still was scared by the fact alone that there were so many people after living with her aunt and uncle for nearly 14 months completely isolated, and of course, after the number these assholes had pulled. She spent a lot of time alone, or with Claire, who became a good friend. She even moved in with Claire and her foster mom Jody. Dean liked Jody, she was like a mother to him and Sam, too, although he suspected she was maybe just 10 years older than him. But most importantly, Sam was fine or was going to be. It had been touch and go for a while and Dean had slept in that armchair for nearly three weeks, but now the wound was closed and Sam got stronger and stronger every day. He even was strong enough to fancy a girl, a brunette named Eileen who taught him ASL just because “he always wanted to learn that.” Yeah, always my ass, Dean had thought with a grin. He liked the girl though, and she must be a mean badass to survive months on her own without hearing. Benny had told the story how they found her and she levelled even up in his eyes when he told him straight-faced and super serious that Eileen had disarmed a rather startled Emma, took her hostage and had actual demands on the group, outnumbered one to 12, a car, gas, ammo and then she would be out of their hair. Emma offered a new place to live instead and here they were.

“Dean!” someone yelled and he turned around. Cas jogged to him. Cas and he had become close friends, although things had been a little weird between them first since Cas was rather awkward and they only got along with Benny as a social lubricant. This has changed three weeks ago when Cas and he had been separated from the others and had a little run-in with seven surprise zombies. They had worked well together and after Cas knifed the last one he had offered a helping hand for Dean to get up, had clapped him on the shoulder and that was it, instant best friends.

“Emma’s looking for you, or rather she sent me looking for you, because fetching people is beneath her,” Cas said with a grin.

“What she want?” Dean asked, already following Cas to the main building. Cas just shrugged.

“Not sure. Garth hasn’t called in a while, guess she’s nervous about it. Maybe she wants us to go look for them,” Dean frowned. Garth had a long-range radio with him and called in every two or three days or so to not drain the batteries. They entered a conference room and Dean stopped a bit surprised. Besides Emma who stood with her arms crossed over her chest and frowned at him, there were Bobby, Tom, Gordon and Jody, nothing that out of the ordinary. The extraordinary part was Alex, Lisa and Victor looking up at him nervously.

“What’s going on?” Dean asked. Emma was unnaturally curt.

“Sit down. We are waiting for Benny and your brother,” Dean reluctantly grabbed a chair and sat down. Cas looked puzzled as well. Bobby worried, so did Jody. Gordon looked pissed and Tom had the same stone-faced mask Emma was sporting. He heard the rather characteristic gait of Sam and turned to his brother who stood in the door looking about as surprised at Dean felt. Benny looked over his shoulder with a deep frown.

“Sit down Sam. Benny, close the door,” she said. It was an order. Sam obeyed. Benny walked over to her with a question mark in his face, but he didn’t say anything. She looked at everybody and then she sighed.

“First I want to tell you that I don’t think anybody of you has anything to do with it,” Gordon huffed and she shot him a look. “But you need to think very carefully right now and tell me everything you know about these people in Alexandria. Because these people have our people and they are coming here.”

Benny was pacing. Dean knew that his niece was on the run and he had promised his dying sister he would not let anything happen to her. When it would have been up to him she wouldn’t even be on that run and now he was close on being angry with Emma because she had let her. Cross out close, he was angry. Cas had told him these two had butted heads more often than once, and he wondered if he would witness another standoff.

“Rick’s the leader. He has a son, Carl, and a daughter, Judith. The sons maybe 15, the girls just a baby. He’s a little unhinged, you ask me.”

“Unhinged how?”

“He’s very aggressive, very distrustful, very protective over his family. A little erratic, too. I’m honestly not sure why they all followed him no questions asked. First thing he did was throw a jab in my face, demanding to know how many more of us are out there. That Korean kid Glenn had to pull him off of me. He later told me that they had an incident with a group of people earlier just showing up killing people and later a horde overrunning them. They lost a lot of people. But still. Never got a hang of that guy. The two who found us were cool, though. Daryl, good with the bow, a tracker, not much of a talker, but decent. Aaron, he was cool, too. I mean they brought us in. They wanted us there. Glenn and Maggie, too. Smart, survivors. Michonne had a Katana, that was kind of badass. The last three were a bit like Rick’s voice of reason, although make no mistake, in the end, they did what he wanted them to do. Who else, uhm Abraham and Rosita. We barely met them. They were always busy with something else. Abraham was military. Loudmouth asshole, but a good guy. Rosita is his girlfriend I guess? As I said, we hadn’t much contact with them. Sasha. Something was up with her, she was kind of brooding. Spent most of her time guarding the place. We barely exchanged more than 10 words. Those were the ones that got the shit done, the fighters. No wait, I forgot Carol. Had a weird feeling with this one. Always friendly, but I sometimes thought that was an act? Hard to explain. But she definitely knows her way around. That were the ones, I guess. Then people who just lived there. I highly doubt they are on their way here, like the pantry lady, what was her name?”

“Olivia,” Sam delivered. “You forgot Tara, too.”

“Right. She was nice. Thing is they actually all were nice,” Dean made air-quotes. “But in the end they would do what Rick said. And I’m sure they know how to get shit done, they got so far. That deal with the other colony, it was just too much for us and so we walked away.”

“That deal being getting rid of that Negan guy for the Hilltop colony and trade with them,” Emma said.

“Right, this one. Look, we got the “we first” thing, we really do. But they had no reason to attack. This wasn’t a deal with the hilltop. This was a hit. We are no fucking contract killers. And the plan was stupid. They close to knew nothing about that Negan, his men, how many men. They obviously survived it, but I don’t know. This was really flimsy information. They didn’t even know how Negan looked like. We wanted nothing to do with it.”

“So that’s it? 12 people? We’ve been about to get attacked by 12 people?” Emma asked with a frown. “That guy has balls. He’s stupid but brave stupid.”

“Maybe Paul is with them as well?” Lisa added.

“Who’s Paul.”

“Jesus, the guy that showed up with the beard and the hair.”

“Right. He was good with knives and very sneaky. Heath, he wanted to join them in their little mission. And the priest,” Sam added. Benny stopped pacing.

“A fucking priest wanted to go and murder people in their sleep? That’s creepy,” he went on pacing. He about paced a trench in the carpet already. Emma massaged the bridge of her nose.

“So I stand corrected.15 people are about to attack us.”

“15 people who hold 7 of our people,” Bobby said.

“The odds are still in our favour. They must have some sort of plan. That’s stupid just knocking on our door. They don’t know us. We could just say whatever and gun them to pieces,” Benny stopped pacing. “Which will not happen, no worries. We get our people back, safe and sound.”

“The place is big, they don’t know yet, but they will see. They could try to sneak in. Start a little chaos, maybe set a fire or two, take some people hostage, kill some people and let them turn,” Gordon suggested. Dean didn’t particularly like Gordon, because he thought thoughts like this, but that was the reason Emma kept him around. And he was loyal to the group, even Dean could see that. Benny stopped again.

“Do they know that we know they are coming? How do we even know that?” he seemed to remember that he had been a professional military person once, an expert in tactical and shit and finally started to ask the right question.

“Right, you weren’t there when I told the others. Denny radioed in. Most was garbled. Could get across that the leader’s name is Rick. That a chick with a sword took him and Bess. Rang my bell. That Bess gave away were we are holed up when they started beating Garth to a pulp. Then the transmission stopped and we couldn’t get them back online. So I assumed they knew we have been warned. Yes.”

“Shit,” Benny mumbled and kept pacing. “That, by the way, is the reason we don’t send couples on a run together,” he mumbled. Emma gave him a hard look.

“You want to do this now? I happily let you spank me when the shit is done. Until then get a grip on yourself. Lizzy is fine. Besides half of the people here would start giving away information the moment you even mention things like torture, couples or not,” they stared at each other.

“Fine, we arm everyone. The kids and whoever doesn’t want to or cannot fight will lock up in the armory. We put people on the walls every 50 yards, earshot, eyesight. No one sneaks in under my watch,” Benny said.

“Agreed, we need people in the woods, too. Who are our best trackers? Bobby can you take care of it?” the man saluted. “When they plan to ambush us or anything we will see. That’s basically the plan. We need to see what happens. Brief your guys that I don’t want this to turn into a bloodbath. Everyone who wasn’t military no bullets. We just make a show,” Gordon looked incredulous.

“You can’t be serious?”

“Our trackers get live ammo. That’s it. I don’t want a stray bullet by a nervous trigger finger to start the fucking O.K. Corral. They don’t know most of the guns pointing at them won’t shoot shit. We show them that they have no chance but give us our people and get the hell out of dodge. Anything to add?” Gordon made a whatever gesture but didn’t say anything. The others nodded. “Good, brief your people,” everybody walked away leaving Emma with Dean and his group.

“You want to go with Ben and Alex and lock up in the armory Lisa? I know you good with guns and you handle a knife good enough, but Dean told me you are not much of a fighter.”

“Yes, please. I don’t mean to be a coward or something,” she said in a small voice.

“It’s okay, it’s a good thing. Most of our people will man the wall. It’s good to have you in there. The kids like you a lot. Sam, you, too,” Sam sighed. He did know that he was basically useless right now, didn’t change the fact that he hated being benched. “Don’t give me that bitch face. You know who will sit in that armory hoping that the whole thing will be over? Kids, the old people, Cain. The guy never shot a gun in his life. Charlie, Alex. You are my last line of defence, man. Busted leg or not. I mean it,” Sam smiled a bit with the pep talk. She looked at the four with a nearly cheerful smile. “Okay, let’s do this.”


End file.
